OF THE POLAR SEA. 99 



and the rein-deer advanced to the northward. 

 The merganser, fmergiis serrator,) which preys 

 upon small fish, was the first of the duck tribe 

 that appeared ; next came the teal, (anas creccaj 

 which lives upon small insects that abound in the 

 waters at this season ; and lastly the goose, which 

 feeds upon berries and herbage. Geese appear 

 at Cumberland House, in latitude 54°, usually 

 about the 12th of April ; at Fort Chipewyan, in 

 latitude 59°, on the 25th of April ; at Slave Lake, 

 in latitude 61°, on the 1st of May ; and at Fort 

 Enterprise, in latitude 64"* 28', on the 1 2th or 

 14th of the same month. 



On the 16th a minor chief amongst the Copper 

 Indians, attended by his son, arrived from Fort 

 Providence to consult Dr. Richardson. He was 

 affected with snow-blindness, which soon yiekled 

 to the dropping of a little laudanum into his eyes 

 twice a day. Most of our own men have been 

 affected with the same complaint of late, but it 

 has always yielded in twenty or thirty hours to 

 the same remedy. 



On the 21st all our men returned from the In- 

 dians, and Akaitcho was on his w^ay to the fort. 

 In the afternoon two of his young men arrived to 

 announce his visit, and to request that he might 

 be received with a salute and other marks of re- 

 spect that he had been accustomed to on visiting 



